The blood-gas partition coefficient of a volatile anaesthetic agent determines primarily:

• A The potency of the agent as measured by the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC)
• B The degree of hepatic metabolism of the agent
• C The pungency and airway irritability of the agent
• D The speed of induction and emergence from anaesthesia ✓

Explanation

The blood-gas partition coefficient (Ostwald coefficient) reflects how readily an agent dissolves in blood relative to alveolar gas. Agents with a low blood-gas solubility (e.g., desflurane 0.45, nitrous oxide 0.47) equilibrate rapidly between alveoli and blood, producing fast induction and fast emergence. Highly soluble agents like halothane (2.4) equilibrate slowly, making induction and recovery slower. MAC is determined by the agent's effect at its target site and is not predicted by solubility. Metabolism and pungency are separate physicochemical properties.

Reference: Morgan & Mikhail's Clinical Anesthesiology, 6th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.